In perhaps yet another sign that the premium smartphone market may be maturing, struggling handset maker HTC has predicted its first-ever operating loss, and revealed it plans to concentrate more on mid-range phones.

Apple isn't the only company grappling with its relationship to Samsung as both a smartphone component supplier and handset competitor. HTC recently complained that Samsung has "strategically declined" to provide it with crucial parts for years.

As of March, Apple boosted its share of the U.S. smartphone market to 39 percent, according to the most recent statistics from market research firm comScore, with a three-month percentage growth outperforming Samsung by a factor of four.

Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission has launched an inquiry into Samsung's business practices following allegations that the South Korean conglomerate hired people to post negative comments about HTC online.

The dominance of South Korea's Samsung in the technology industry's supply chain has sparked fears among Taiwan-based companies, who are making moves to counter Samsung and align with major device makers like Apple.

Samsung in public has been defending the quality of the plastic construction of its devices, but the company is said to be "worried" internally about its Galaxy line's build quality when compared against Apple's iPhone and HTC's One.

The smartphone industry is increasingly becoming a two-horse race between Apple and Samsung, as rival handset maker HTC Corp. on Monday reported its lowest quarterly profit since the company began reporting in 2004.

At a Menlo Park media event on Thursday, Facebook revealed the newest iteration of its mobile app for Android, Facebook Home, which company CEO Mark Zuckerberg says signals a shift in the way that people will interact with their computing devices.

HTC on Tuesday took the wraps off its latest "One" smartphone, sporting a 4.7-inch high-definition display with 468 pixels per inch, powered by a 1.7-gigahertz quad-core Snapdragon processor, all encased in an iPhone-like aluminum shell.

A photo of what is thought to be the next-generation HTC One handset was purportedly leaked to the Web on Friday, showing the smartphone clad in a "slate and black" colorway similar to Apple's iPhone 5.

A heavily redacted version of Apple's patent licensing agreement with HTC, made public on Wednesday as part of the Apple v. Samsung jury trial, reveals a bit more information about the properties covered as part of the ten-year deal.

In a late Monday ruling, Apple v. Samsung Judge Lucy Koh said that the patents Apple and HTC are cross-licensing as part of a ten-year deal will not remain sealed, indicating that the public will be privy to the sensitive information.

A heavily redacted public version of the Apple and HTC licensing agreement was discovered on Wednesday, offering a few shreds of information regarding the ten-year deal including a "change of control" clause that automatically terminates the agreement if one of the parties is bought out.